Entomologist to speak on evolution of infectious disease

Posted March 18, 2010; 12:11 p.m.

by Staff

Andrew Read, an entomologist and biologist at Pennsylvania State University, will give a talk on "The Selfish Germ: The Future of Infectious Disease in a Pharmaceutical Age" at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 23, in 101 Friend Center.

Read studies the ecology and evolution of infectious diseases. He is examining whether medical science is spurring the evolution of more virulent germs and what effect a malaria vaccine will have upon the evolution of the parasite causing the disease. He also is studying whether scientists can slow down the evolution of drug-resistant microbes and halt the development of insecticide-resistant mosquitoes.

Read taught at the University of Oxford and the University of Edinburgh before joining the Penn State faculty in 2007.

Read's talk is part of the 2010 "Frontiers in Biology" lecture series, sponsored by Princeton University Press and the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. He also will present a lecture in the department's colloquium series on "Malaria and Marek's Disease: Avoiding Another Century of Evolutionary Mismanagement" at 12:30 p.m. Thursday, March 25, in 10 Guyot Hall.